Date: March 24, 2025
Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov
Marc H. Silverman, Acting United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, Anish Shukla, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the New Haven Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Harry Chavis, Special Agent in Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation in New England, today announced that a federal grand jury in Bridgeport has returned a 12-count indictment charging Heather Murdock of Ellington, with fraud and tax offenses stemming from an embezzlement scheme.
The indictment was returned on March 19, 2025. On March 20, Murdock appeared before U.S. District Judge Thomas O. Farrish in Hartford, pleaded not guilty to the charges, and was released on a $40,000 bond.
As alleged in the indictment, Murdock was employed as the bookkeeper and office manager at a Hartford law firm, identified in court documents as “Firm A.” Between approximately 2010 and 2022, using Firm A’s bookkeeping software, Murdock generated hundreds of false checks made payable to herself and on which she forged the signature of Firm A’s owner. To conceal her embezzlement, Murdock doctored the bookkeeping system entries to make it appear that the checks had been issued to legitimate vendors. Murdock deposited the forged checks into her own bank account. Murdock stole approximately $583,953 through this scheme.
The indictment also alleges that Murdock stole cash rental payment made by tenants of properties owned by Firm A’s owner. To conceal her theft, Murdock generated false checks from Firm A’s bank account payable to the account in which Firm A’s owner received rental income, making it appear that the expected deposits of rental income had been made, and doctored references in the firm’s bookkeeping system. Murdock stole approximately $251,314 through this scheme.
The indictment further alleges that Murdock failed to pay federal income taxes on the embezzled funds and her wages from Firm A for the 2013 through 2022 tax years, and that she substantially underreported her income in 2011 and 2012. Murdock’s underreported tax obligations total $248,294.
Acting U.S. Attorney Silverman stressed that an indictment is not evidence of guilt. Charges are only allegations, and a defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
This investigation is being conducted by the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Elena L. Coronado.
IRS-CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a 90% federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 14 attaché posts abroad.